


Heaven For a Sinner Like Me

by wildwinterwitch



Series: Driftwood [11]
Category: Broadchurch, True Love (TV)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Series 1 Episode 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-15
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-12-08 13:56:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/762100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildwinterwitch/pseuds/wildwinterwitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec and Holly have dinner at the Millers'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heaven For a Sinner Like Me

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from “Never Let Me Go” by Florence & The Machine

Alec saw movement from the corner of his eye as he kissed Holly hello. It was just a chaste brush of lips against lips, but to Miller it must look like so much more. Which it was, but neither he nor Holly hadn't figured out exactly what yet. It didn’t really matter. Let Miller think what she wanted.

“Hello you,” Holly said, carefully balancing the bowl she had brought. She had insisted that, since this was recipe-testing night at the Millers’, she test a recipe of her own and bring dessert. He took the bowl from her. He needed something to hold on to when they entered the house.

“Hello,” he said. “Are ye sure about this?”

“Are you, Alec?” she asked.

Damn, she knew him so well already. “They’re all right to be around, I suppose. I just feel awkward. I’m not good at that small talk stuff.”

“Interrogation’s more your thing, hmm?”

“Aye.”

She rose onto the balls of her feet for another kiss. “You wouldn’t want to miss dessert. It’s heavenly.”

“If you already know, why don’t we just go back to yours and have it all to ourselves?”

“You are nervous, aren’t you?”

He looked away, tightening his hold on the plastic bowl.

“They didn’t expect you to come with a friend.”

“Holly,” he began.

“Is it because of me?”

“No. It’s just me. I’m so glad I have ye. Ye know that.”

She smirked and he rolled his eyes.

“See? Much better. Now, let’s put them out of their misery.”

They stepped onto the porch and knocked.

“Hello!” Miller was her usual cheerful self, but her expression was priceless when she saw Holly. “Oh, aren’t you…?”

“Yes,” Holly replied. “Hello, Mrs Miller.”

“Oh, please call me Ellie. If you can do that. Sir has a bit of a thing with first names,” she said, stepping aside to let them enter. He was speechless.

“Yes, he does, doesn’t he?” Holly said, smiling. “My name is Holly. I’ve got some chocolate mousse.”

“Oh, thank you. We’d best pop it in the fridge,” Ellie said, taking the bowl from him. He helped Holly out of her coat and shrugged out of his own, hanging both of them on an empty peg by the door.

When he caught another movement from the corner of his eye, he saw Tom sitting on the top landing, sneaking a glance at them. The boy blushed furiously but was frozen into immobility by his shock. Alec nodded at him. Tom had been watching them when he’d first been round for dinner, but then Alec had let it pass and pretended he hadn’t noticed.

“Hello, Miss,” Tom said. It was the only thing he could do to save face.

“O, hello,” Holly said, smiling at him. “They send you to bed with no dessert? I’ll make sure we’ll leave you some.”

Tom’s shocked face lit up. “Yeah, thanks, Miss.”

“Now, off to bed with you!” Miller admonished him with humour in her voice.

“My daughter did that all the time when she was his age,” he offered.

Holly and Miller looked at him in surprise, and he realised what he had just said. He pursed his lips and looked at Holly. If she’d seen the photo in his room, she hadn’t commented on it yet.

Joe had made Mexican food again, and it was even better this time. Alec was steadfast about not drinking, and Joe nodded thoughtfully while Miller couldn’t stop teasing him.

“So, how did you two meet?” Miller asked eventually.

“I spoiled his view of the bay on the beach,” Holly said.

“She was drawing, and I am by nature a curious person, so I went to have a look,” Alec continued.

“And how long have you been together?”

“We’re just friends,” he hurried to reply. “She’s the only one I’ve got here.”

Miller didn’t believe a word of what he was saying, rightly so, and he couldn’t stop being proud of her. She’d come a long way since they’d first met. Her disbelief made way for indignation, however. “That’s because you don’t want any, isn’t it?”

“Ellie,” Joe said softly. “Why don’t you get some more of the guacamole?”

“No, you get it, darling.”

Alec stared at her. “I find it difficult, having friends.”

“What makes her so special then? No offence, love,” Miller said.

“We have a deal,” Holly replied, “a deal that suits us both.”

“We don’t talk about certain things. Like work, and certain personal matters.”

“Oh,” Miller sat back, sipping her wine. “You’re friends with benefits.”

Alec coloured deeply and wished he could just disappear. This was exactly the reason why he hated socialising. The way Miller had said the words implied that she understood their relationship to a degree. “That isn’t anyone’s business.”

“What’s so bad about it?” Holly said, covering his hand where it rested on the table cloth.

The question took Miller by surprise, but he was still shocked by it. This really wasn’t anyone’s business, and it was a mistake having brought Holly.

“I just can’t imagine it working,” Miller offered eventually.

Thankfully, Joe returned just then with another generous helping of guacamole. Alec reached for it and spooned some of it onto his plate. Joe was a great cook.

“It works fine,” Holly replied. “It’s comfortable.”

“What is?” Joe asked, looking around the table to be eased back into the conversation.

“Living so close to school,” Holly lied.

“Ah, yes. Don’t you mind meeting pupils or parents in town sometimes?”

“Not at all. They’re usually friendly or glad to be left alone,” Holly replied.

Alec wasn’t so sure any more if he wanted to be just friends with Holly. She was brilliant at simple conversation, and he got to see an entirely different side of her. Her self-confidence shone through, lifting the pall K’s memory seemed to cast, revealing a generally happy woman behind the sadness.

Then again, maybe being with her wasn’t right. He preferred keeping to himself, and he didn’t want to drain her of that quiet joie de vivre by being dark and moody. He wished he could tell her about his illness, but he was afraid of destroying what they had. He wished he could tell her how much more than a friend she was too, but he held back for the same reason. Bloody hell, he was such a mess. Maybe it’d be best not to —

“Alec!” Holly said, squeezing his hand.

His eyes flew to hers.

“You were miles away there. Would you like some more water?”

Dumbly, he nodded.

“You let her call you Alec?”

He shrugged. “Sir sounds a lot like role play in some contexts,” he grumbled.

Miller guffawed. “I’d never thought I’d say this about you, _Sir_ , but that is too much information.”

Frozen at first, he warmed as their laughter rolled around him and he joined in it. Thankfully, the topic moved on to less personal ground afterwards.

-:-

“Yours or mine?” Holly asked when they needed to make a decision. He slid his hand into hers and they turned towards the hotel. It was closer.

Holly looked at him in surprise at the gesture and tested the feel of his palm against hers before she settled for the most comfortable position.

“Thank you for tonight,” he said softly.

“I like them. They’re interesting and kind. Joe’s food was amazing,” Holly said.

“I found it… painful.”

Holly squeezed his hand. “Trust them, and trust yourself more, Alec.”

“I find that a little hard, given what happened.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Your chocolate mousse. It was divine. It’s a shame we don’t have any more,” he said.

“I could always make some more, but we’d have to go back to mine for that.”

“Not tonight, aye?”

-:-

“Is this your daughter?” Holly asked, pointing at the framed photo on the desk.

“Aye.”

“Are you in touch?”

“Only via voice mail.”

Holly’s face fell and there was a spark of recognition in it. She worked with teenagers and he wondered if he ought to ask her her opinion, but he was afraid that she’d confirm his darkest thoughts, and that would make something break between him and his child. It wouldn’t be out of malice, because what reason did she have to do so, but because Holly was professional and sensible.

“Aye,” he mumbled.

Before he knew it, Holly had enfolded him in her arms and then she rose upwards for a kiss. She tasted of tea and chocolate, and the tip of her nose was cold again. “I’m a little cold,” she whispered, nibbling at his bottom lip. She loved doing that and she knew what it did to him. It was something no woman before her had bothered to discover and which he hadn’t known he’d enjoy. It was one of the gifts Holly had given him. He wondered what she saw in him.

“Holly,” he said.

“Yes?”

“I’m nae fishing for compliments,” he began. “But what is it that ye see in me? I seem a grumpy old bastard to many of the fine people in this bloody town.”

“Ellie likes you,” she protested. “She does. It’s just hard work for her peeling back all those layers. They seem different to her than they are to me.”

“Ah. And… what are they to ye?”

“I find a sensitive man with a generous heart,” Holly said. “A brilliant man who’s dedicated to anything he does with everything he has. You are the kindest, most considerate and skilled lover I’ve ever been with.”

“That’s not me.”

“Yes. When you feel safe, you are.”

He tilted his head back. She was right and he was a fool to push her away. He was close to doing so, to keep himself safe, to not allow her close enough that she could go for his jugular if she decided to. “I feel safe with you,” he eventually said.

“That’s good,” she said, “because I feel the same when I’m with you. I feel cherished and appreciated. I’m not someone to look up to or to consider just a fuck.”

He blinked. “Is that how they treated you? Is that K?”

She blushed, feeling caught. Of course he’d had to pounce on a statement like this; he seemed unable to help himself. “I’m sorry.”

Luckily, she remained where she was. “The looking up to thing, that was K.”

“Ah.” He forced himself not to think about her words too much. He wasn’t the DI with her. He was just Alec, and he should be glad to be able to leave the DI behind when he was with her. It was such a gift anyway, that she’d be willing to peel back the layers. She and Ellie both.

“Alec?”

“Aye?”

“I’d like to make love to you.”

She’d never said it before. He’d thought it, and then as now, his mouth went dry. “Please do,” he croaked. “I’m all yours.”

-:-

A few days later, when he woke the second time after Holly had left, it was from the familiar nightmare about the four main suspects, all of them standing too close to the water. He tried frantically to get them to move to safety, but they wouldn’t budge.

Although he wanted nothing more then than to curl up around Holly for comfort, he was glad she didn’t have to witness the violence of the dream. She’d left hours earlier to go home and get ready for school. 


End file.
